Returning abandoned land to crop production is the aim of the Cúlra Créafóige programme in the Gaeltacht Parish of Cloich Cheann Fhaola in Co Donegal. The project, which started this year, received some €600,000 in funding from the European Commission through the European Innovation Partnership (EIP).

Census information shows that this area of Donegal has been hit by high-emigration rates, high-unemployment rates and has an aging demographic.

Lárionad Acmhainní Nádúrtha employees and volunteers preparing land for planting.

Many fields in the area are either not being used for agricultural production or are heading for land abandonment.

At the outset of the project, farmers were asked to offer unused land to the scheme and the project team would try to make it productive again.

After a number of information nights in February, 24 landowners submitted 36 fields for entry to Cúlra Créafóige.

After some on-site field evaluations, 16 fields – totalling 12 acres – were selected for cultivation.

Individualised cropping plans were drawn up for each field and ground broken on the seven fields targeted for spring seeding.

Lárionad Acmhainní Nádúrtha employees harvest naturally grown mixed leaves for the local market.

These were sown with green manure to boost organic matter, increase fertility and break perennial pest cycles as the first part of the cropping plan.

There are also designated “wild patches” sown with a variety of flowering annuals and perennials to support beneficial insect predators and pollinators.

“The land is being put into our trust to run the project over the course of five years,” say Veronika McNulty and Erin Gonseth from Lárionad Acmhainní Nádúrtha (centre for natural resources), a community based company that is running the project.

Horticulturists inspect land last cultivated for corn and potatoes in 1973.

Lárionad Acmhainní Nádúrtha also runs “The Glasshouses”, a project which grows fruit, vegetable and herbs that are sold to the local community through shops, restaurants, a box scheme and plant sales. The centre includes a one-acre glasshouse and several large polytunnels.

“There are five staff in management and administration. Then we hire in local contractors to do some of the work for us.

"One of the things we found in Donegal is that many people did not have enough land to have a marketable crop to sell to Dublin, for example.

"We are running this project to make sure these crops will grow and have a viable market – perhaps through a co-op.”

Demonstration on raising bees and honey production held at Lárionad Acmhainní Nádúrtha centre.

Cúlra Créafóige has purchased a seed fiddle which would have been in use from the 1800s until small-scale cultivation was mostly phased out in the 1960s.

Where appropriate, the fields will be sown using this technique. The project is using organic cultivation methods to return the soil to a stage where it can grow marketable produce.

Part of the exercise is to determine whether or not the land can be made profitable. The results and training will be given to the landowners over the course of the five years.

Contractor for Cúlra Créafóige preparing lands last worked over 30 years ago.

“There’s been a lot of cattle and sheep production in the area, buying in a lot of feed.

"If someone is raising chickens then we will help change their abandoned land into something productive, like oats to feed the chickens and shorten the supply chain,” said Erin.

“If we can bring crops back into the area then local cottage industries will spring back up.

"A lot of biodiversity relies on the cropping system that used to be here. So we are trying to find an agricultural income that will be also be good for the environment.”

Contractor for Cúlra Créafóige harrows newly opened field for seeding with carbon and nitrogen building green manure.

Involving the local Gaeltacht community means that old names for cultivation techniques are being rediscovered. Students that were there on work experience over the summer were given the task of compiling a list of the horticulture terminology they learnt while there and the corresponding Irish word.

“For anyone who has expressed interest in the project, we are opening up training sessions on soil management.

"We will have masterclasses on all the different crops. We will also look at honey production, how to grow oats and how to use a scythe to harvest,” Erin said.

Project activities:

  • Rehabilitate, ploughing and plant 12 acres annually.
  • Plant and monitor the crops; spring and winter oats, gortahork kale, garlic, linseed, nettles, comfrey and chicory.
  • Devise a cultivation plan for the five years for each plot.
  • Conduct a valuation on the crops produced.
  • Upskill the landowners.
  • Research the micro-business benefits of cultivation activity in the area.
  • If successful, the project will provide a template for other disused parcels of land to be returned to production in a profitable way.

    “I think there is a lot of enthusiasm. The fact that it is a five-year programme gives us time to improve the soil system and bring it back as agricultural land. Over the five years we hope to get to 60 acres.”